Debora Mekonnen 

English 1102 

Professor, Rebecca Weaver, PhD 

April 21, 2022 

Introduction 

Anxiety is a feeling of uneasiness, such as worry or fear, and depending on the person, it can be mild or even severe. Anxiety in college is said to be the most common, recurring issue in college students at a traditional 4-year university. This issue should be talked about because if ignored, it can hinder individuals, leaving them feeling like there is something wrong with them. Instead, coming to terms and finding ways to cope could be a better method. The first step to improving anxiety is recognition, not shying away, or avoiding the topic whilst facing it head on. This matters because by helping oneself, they can, in time, become the best version of themselves.  

Discussion 

Although anxiety among college students may not be the most focused on, it is indeed one of the most common. According to Nicole J. LeBlanc, MA, and PhD Luana Marques, the sharpest increase in anxiety occurs during the initial transition to college. College students, leaving everything they know behind, with a brand-new start, tend to leave some feeling lost. They start to face new challenges, whether it’s having problems with roommates, adapting to new environments, or even trying to figure out just exactly who they are. In Robertson, Sarah M. C.’s text, “Randomized Controlled Trial Assessing the Efficacy of Expressive Writing in Reducing Anxiety in First-Year College Students: The Role of Linguistic Features,” they state first-year college students are also typically in the emerging adulthood developmental phase that occurs between 18 and 25 years of age (2). Students are expected to automatically be ready for such a life-changing experience at such an early age, which in turn, makes them feel so uneasy about it all, leading them to have anxiety. 

Some students are thrown into the world, having parents assume it’s the same as spending the night at a friend’s house, and leaving them with poor advice. It leaves college students afraid of what is to come, not knowing what to expect, especially since their parents don’t leave them with the best pep talks. In “Anxiety in College Students,” Imm, Jacob’s article, it’s written that “college is a new and exciting milestone, so it is common to have anticipatory anxiety in the weeks before heading off to campus. But anticipatory anxiety can be much more serious … For some, it can be crippling, preventing you from preparing for school appropriately or even making you consider not going to school at all. (1)” This is mostly due to “home-sickness” or even could be the case of separation anxiety. This is something that recurs in oncoming first-year students. Every year there are fresh faces, but with the same struggle.  

The main types of anxiety that college students tend to face are anticipatory anxiety, separation anxiety, social anxiety, test anxiety and anxiety over peer pressure. Although they all differ, all these distinct types of anxiety have something in common, they all leave you feeling fearful. Students start to feel overwhelmed with studies, on top of everything else. Educators and parents fail to acknowledge such things, telling students that how they feel is nothing but normal and that it’s what everybody goes through when attending college. In the article “Reappraising Test Anxiety Increases Academic Performance of First-Year College Students,” Brady, Shannon T states, “first-year students would report greater emotionality, greater worry, and less knowledge of how to perform well before their first exam in a psychology course (3).”  Such information is known as well as common, but still, not spoken about enough. 

Now on ways to cope with this crippling, recurring disorder, there are quite a few. “Anxiety lives and grows precisely because people are too quick to dismiss it. Once you know better where it comes from for college students, the next step is to identify anxiety symptoms and signs so they can be addressed,” it states in Jacob Imm’s article “Anxiety in College Students. “One that is highly recommended would be to take care of your physical health. Finding ways to improve on things such as blocking out negativity, managing it, and especially to surround yourself with support. One of the biggest things to remember is that it is ok, and that there is absolutely nothing wrong with you. Many people may not/ will not understand what someone facing anxiety is going through.  

Studies in anxiety show that every year, anxiety seems to rise the most when newcomers arrive. According to the American College Health Association Fall 2018 National College Health Assessment in Nicole J. LeBlanc, MA, and PhD Luana Marques’s article “Anxiety in College: What we know and how to cope,” it is stated that “63% of college students in the US felt overwhelming anxiety in the past year (1).” It tended to rise the most during newcomers’ first semester and “remains elevated throughout the second semester. “Attending a 4-year university, being introduced to new things, something completely opposite from everything you know, is very damaging to students. Students need time to process such tremendous changes in their lives, instead they are thrown in and expected to adapt almost immediately. And this is usually thrown at students, with no help from teachers or parents.  

In conclusion, anxiety is a recurring issue in first-year college students at a traditional 4-year school. Although parents may not be able to understand their children when facing certain types of anxiety, students seeking help where they can get it is the best option. The first step is acceptance, realizing there may need to be some specialized help. Another as well is to learn and understand that there is nothing wrong with any student that may be going through anxiety. That way, maybe someday, the rising growth of anxiety towards college students could soon start to decrease.  

Citations 

• Nicole J. LeBlanc, MA, and PhD Luana Marques. “Anxiety in College: What We Know and How to Cope.” Harvard Health, 27 Aug. 2019, 
• Imm, Jacob. “Anxiety in College Students.” Anxiety in College Students | North Central College, 4 Dec. 2020 
• Robertson, Sarah M. C., et al. “Randomized Controlled Trial Assessing the Efficacy of Expressive Writing in Reducing Anxiety in First-Year College Students: The Role of Linguistic Features.” Psychology & Health, vol. 36, no. 9, Sept. 2021, pp. 1041–65. 
• Brady, Shannon T., et al. “Reappraising Test Anxiety Increases Academic Performance of First-Year College Students.” Journal of Educational Psychology, vol. 110, no. 3, Apr. 2018, pp. 395–406.